When Statistics Canada released 2006 census data on aboriginals this week, it found 1,172,790 people in Canada identifying as First Nations, Inuit and Metis. In the past 10 years, that’s a 45% increase in size, a growth rate nearly six times that of the non-native population, which expanded 8% in the same period. The median age for aboriginals, 27 years, is a full 13 years younger than among non-aboriginals. In Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where aboriginals make up the largest proportions, their median ages were 22 and 24 years respectively. About 1/5 of aboriginals are under 10, compared with just 11% of non-natives.

It’s what Mr. Chettleburgh refers to as “the pig in the python,” a massive cohort progressing steadily along the Canadian timeline. If anything like these rates simply hold steady over the next 25 years, there could be almost three million aboriginals in Canada by 2031, representing as much as 8% of the population. (…)

“The question is, are we talking about $36-billion [in aboriginal transfers] at a time when a third of the Canadian population is going into retirement, and will not be paying into the tax coffers of the country, and will be relying on very, very expensive social welfare programs?” Mr. Helin asks.

They never shut up about the “epidemics” of alcoholism and spousal abuse in their “communities” — epidemics that can be wiped out, we’re assured, if we just give them a few billion more dollars — but if the white folks paying those bills point out that Indians drink a lot and beat their wives, we’re “racist.”

The feds offered to fund the move but residents refused to leave their traditional lands. Despite being plagued with social problems like alcohol and drug abuse, family violence and suicide, the pull of the land proved too great. “If you lose your ties to the land, you lose who you are,” said one Cree resident.